El Conclusion: San Antonio Spurs 112, Memphis Grizzlies 92

Oh the fun of battling down low with Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol. Z-Bo hasn’t been near the force against the Spurs that he was a few years ago, but I don’t think that makes it any easier to play against him. With the offensive lift Kawhi Leonard and Manu Ginobili gave the Spurs, Duncan was free to try and gain as much control over the paint as possible.

In terms of being a first option on offense, this was as good as I’ve ever seen Leonard. His midrange jumper was excellent and he looked totally comfortable initiating the offense. He didn’t have one of those major playmaking days on the defensive end, but it wasn’t really necessary against these Grizzlies.

Weird night for Green. He played about seven minutes in the first quarter, didn’t play in the second, then scored all nine of his points in the first five minutes of the third quarter. I’m having a hard time getting a handle on Icy Hot’s evening.

Pop said after the game that he wanted to get more reps for the Ginobelli pairing, which is always fun. Belinelli couldn’t knock down a shot on Sunday night, I don’t think the Grizzlies are the best matchup for him.

Three Things We Saw

After the game, Mike Conley said about the Spurs that, “They’ve had our number for a couple of years now,” which I thought was an interesting quote, especially for those who think that San Antonio doesn’t want to face Memphis in the first round.

The Grizzlies are trying desperately to get in the playoffs, but face a tough battle with Dallas and Phoenix for the final two Western Conference playoff spots, which I touched on in today’s Daily Dime at ESPN.com (Shameless plug alert).

Even if Tony Parker’s MRI comes back clean on Monday, I’ll be surprised to see him play too much more the rest of the regular season. Gregg Popovich talked on Sunday about the need to play his guys higher minutes in order to get them conditioned to play 40 minutes or so in the playoffs, but he’ll want to keep his guys healthy first and foremost. With the Thunder losing to Phoenix on Sunday night and OKC 4.5 games back of the SPurs, the first seed in the West is all but wrapped up for San Antonio, so there’s not a lot left to play for.

With our win over the Grizz, I’m encouraged. The Thunder have struggled against the Mavs and Suns this year.

interxavier

We can probably take something out of their playbook against the Thunder.

Ray

Will you guys be doing anymore podcasts?

http://48minutesofhell.com Andrew A. McNeill

We will. Apologies for the lack of audio updates, but the last couple of months have been busy for us when it comes to non-48moh related stuff. And by that, I mean life. We won’t have a new one for next week, but when playoffs kick-off we should be back to our weekly posting schedule.

Ray

I understand.

td4life

That something is a stretch bigman. Will Bonner get one last shot at playoff redemption? Or will Diaw get the mandate to step out more against OKC? Gotta get Ibaka away from the paint.